Doctors Decry Lack of Medicaid Spending

State lawmakers want to cut the cost of Medicaid, but they are hearing from doctors that Medicaid doesn’t spend enough to reimburse them. Doctor David Barbe, president of the Missouri State Medical Association, tells the Medicaid Reform Commission a typical, routine doctor’s visit costs $70, but Medicaid will reimburse the doctor only $17. He says other states have found ways to provide greater reimbursement. Barbe suggests other ways to cut Medicaid costs: implementing case and disease management, encouraging personal management, and creating a reational drug policy. He says streamlining would help: eliminating some pre-authorization and second opinion requirements and improving payment processing.